1.) What is your bandname about? Is it right that you’ve stolen the name from a lesbian girls?

We wanted to call our band The Ramones, after Paul McCartney from the Beatles’ original stage name, Paul Ramone, but those skinny punks from New York City beat us to it by about 25 years!
Our singer Tim used to live next to a house full of lesbians that called themselves the Sugar Cult; supposedly it was the name of some lesbian hippie commune in the ‘60s.

2.) Sugarcult sounds more like a name for a pop-band then a punk-based band. What was the intention to take this name? Is it to desribe Sugarcult's punk-pop-crossover music?

As mentioned, we were named after lesbian hippies. Does that mean we sat down and said “lets wear sandals, grow beards and sing Melissa Etheridge and KD Lang songs”?; Hell no!!! Our band’s style and sound is the result of what I like to call a happy accident; we’re not pretentious. A lot of people call us a punk band or a power pop band; both we take as compliments because we like a lot of “punk” and “power pop” bands which is why those attitudes and approaches indirectly influence our music; either way it’s all rock n roll when all is said and done!! What I loved the most about the first few waves of “punk rock” was that it was like an unofficial musical movement of misfits and outcasts that didn’t fit in with current trends. Then critics and the music industry lumped them all together and called it punk, so it would be easier to sell to the masses. I doubt the Clash, or even Black Flag, got together and had a meeting and determined, “okay guys, let’s be punk! You bleach your hair, I’ll pierce my nose, you go get a skateboard…” The problem with “punk” and any other label is that it usually causes more harm than good. When a band evolves musically they risk falling out of line with the rigid rules of any one genre; to me that’s the anti-thesis of what punk set out to destroy. Any thing that promotes having a closed mind, and is against creativity is of no interest to me, whether it’s called punk or not.

3.) It´s hard listening to "Start static" while sitting still. It seems that the songs are made to be presented on stage. Is Sugarcult in first case a live-band?

We were going to call Start Static, “the Sugarcult weight loss program”. The entire album is scientifically designed to keep your heart rate in a fat-burning zone for about an hour. If you turn it up really loud in between songs we give nutrition tips and lead you through a routine of yoga stretches and cardiovascular excercises. There are so many fat people in America, that we thought it would be a great public service. In all seriousness, our band and all the songs on Start Static, evolved from playing live. We come alive on stage, it’s where we feel the most at home. The only reason we make records, is so we can have a good excuse to go on tour. I love Start Static, I’m proud of the way it turned out; but you also need to see us live to truly get Sugarcult; that’s part of the reason we included our DVD on the first European pressings.

4.) Do lyrics need a deeper meaning? (And do your songs have a deeper meaning? And if yes: What is the meaning of songs like "Stuck in America"?)

Lyrics always have deeper meanings, that’s a big part of why people love music so much. Otherwise, what’s the point of buying a record? If lyrics didn’t have depth, then all you’d have to do is listen to songs once and then throw them away. Tim may write his lyrics from the perspective of his own life and experiences, but you don’t have to know him personally to relate to our songs. The cool thing is you put a song out there and it takes on a life of it’s own, it’s meanings depend on how someone relates to it as it pertains to there own life and imagination. I have records in my collection that I feel were made just for me; the fact is there may be millions of others who feel the same way, about the very same record. One song might remind you of a girl you dated 3 summers ago; another might remind you of a group of friends that were really tight for a while and have since all moved away or whatever. In the book, High Fidelity (by: Nick Hornby) the main character explains how his record collection is organized autobiographically, rather than alphabetically. Music really is the soundtrack to life. That said, it’s less important what Tim meant by writing “Stuck in America”, than what meaning you take from it. He wrote it about feeling young and hopeless in a country that is so hyped up to be the land of opportunity. It’s not an anti-America song, it’s an anthem for all those kids stuck in old-fashioned towns, living with close-minded parents, or just plain wondering how and when things are ever going to get better.

5.) Why is "Start static" so short? (Is the bonus-CD with Video-Footage regulary included?)

We all suffer from pre-mature ejaculation in our sex lives, so we wanted to make an album that people like us could fuck to and still have time to get some things done around the house. I guess, we are guilty of loving too many records from the ‘70s and ‘80s, before CDs enabled bands to put out 10,000 songs on one album. We don’t treat our records as slapped together collections of songs, we look at the big picture. Start Static sounded best from beginning to end, with the eleven songs on it in the order we put them in; there is a hidden track that we “hid” because we couldn’t figure out where it would fit. A lot of our fans write us and tell us how they never have to skip over the bad songs on our CD; that’s because we already did that for you by leaving them off the record! The DVD is free with the European pressings only. We felt bad that you had to wait so long for our record to be available domestically, so it’s our peace offering, plus we want you to see how sexy we are!

6.) Who are your musical idols?

I’m sure as individuals we’d all answer this question totally different. As a band, we all love the Clash, Elvis Costello, the Ramones, The Police, Nirvana, Superdrag, and Green Day to name a few general influences. I love all kinds of music, but my main “musical idols” are probably the people and bands I grew up with in my hometown scene. Santa Barbara, California is a pretty small town so me and a lot of my friends found music early on as a fun thing to do and eventually as a ticket to see the world and have crazy adventures. A lot of bands come from our town; Lagwagon, RKL, Nerf Herder, The Ataris, Mad Caddies, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Snot, Dishwalla, NOFX lived in town for a while too; we all grew up together and learned from each other. I guess seeing people do music in my own scene is what made me realize that I could do it too.

7.) What makes you creative?
Living life. Extremes of passion, frustration, inspiration, and boredom can evoke creativity. What makes you pick up a guitar in the middle of the night and strum out a chord progression; or grab a pen and scribble lyrics on an old food wrapper while driving around in your car? Who knows? One thing I have a problem with is when bands are too insecure to take any chances and allow for creativity. Now more than ever there is an overwhelming amount of bands that seem to be working with whatever winning formula works for other bands; what results is a bunch of bands that sound exactly the same, which dilutes the greatness of the one or two bands that innovated the style. I’m not going to name names, but they’re out there promoting mediocrity and unbeknownst to them, paving the way for a new wave of sounds to come flush them all away very soon. And that doesn’t mean you have to play music that sounds ugly just for the sake of being original, you can use your influences, just don’t try to be your influences. Don’t fuck with the spirit of rock n roll, it always wins in the end!

8.) Who writes the songs?

So far Tim has written most of our songs, but we all write our own parts and take part in the arrangements. The Sugarcult sound is what happens when Tim shows up with an acoustic guitar and mumbles some melodic words, then we all roll up our sleeves and dive right in with the mission of turning them into loud rock songs. Unless the song sucks, in which case we all shake our heads and say, “dude, that song sucks!”. That rarely happens, Tim is a pretty talented motherfucker.

9.) Will there be a tour through europe and especially germany?

Yes, and especially yes in Germany! We love it over there strong beer, good coffee, interesting food, friendly people, etc. We did a Euro-tour recently with Reel Big Fish, and we had such a good time traveling around, experiencing different cultures, and hanging out with the local people that we can’t wait to return for another run. Right now we’re home working on new songs for our next record, but I know we’re planning to go to Europe twice this summer (in June and again in August). Check in with www.sugarcult.com regularly to find out more details. We will soon post info on shows in Hamburg, Munich, etc. for June.

10.) Do you have also ordinary jobs?

We did for the first 2 years of our 4 year history. I remember working all day, jumping in my beat up old car and driving 3 hours to play some show in the middle of nowhere, getting home at 5am and waking up a few hours later to get to work, several times a week! For the past 2 years we’ve been busy recording and touring non-stop so, luckily, we don’t have time for anything else. I can’t imagine what idiot would be dumb enough to hire us to work somewhere; we’d make really bad employees at any day job; I mean with our night job we stay up late 7 days a week, we’re always out of town and when we show up there’s always a case of beer waiting for us! I guess people who work at truck stops and 24-hour liquor stores can relate, except they’d probably get fired if they actually drank the beer! We traded 8 hour jobs 5 days a week, for 24 hour jobs 7 days a week; which is fine because we’re doing something we love.

Cheers
Marko 72
Sugarcult guitar